Paula74 wrote:mainly a fan of Tom Baker (if I dress for Halloween this year, it may be as his Doctor)

Ha! I'm thinking of going as Tennant!Doctor. I've got the coat, Converse, sonic screwdriver. Just need to find a good matching suit. You must take pics if you go as Tom.

Did anyone see Gerard Butler sing MOTN on "Saturday Night Live" tonight? Oh God, it was painful. He was funny on the show, but please no more singing. His voice in the movie was like velvet compared to tonight.

Cape Twirl of Doom wrote:Did anyone see Gerard Butler sing MOTN on "Saturday Night Live" tonight? Oh God, it was painful. He was funny on the show, but please no more singing. His voice in the movie was like velvet compared to tonight.

Oh no! I would expect it to be somewhat more soulful live. But I'm not interested in finding out. I've had my dosis of bad Phantom singing (especially from the movie) and I've heard how the music and story can soar in the hands/mouth of the right persons. I've promised myself to seek out the latter rather than the former if I am to remain a phan the next 10 years.

_________________JOSEFINE TO THE PHANTOM:You come off as... somewhat... rough...

Paula74 wrote:mainly a fan of Tom Baker (if I dress for Halloween this year, it may be as his Doctor)

Ha! I'm thinking of going as Tennant!Doctor. I've got the coat, Converse, sonic screwdriver. Just need to find a good matching suit. You must take pics if you go as Tom.

I've gone as Tom Baker's Doctor before...years and years ago. I have a long coat, a soft fedora...basically, I just need to find a passable scarf. I've got tons of old stuff around so I probably have one that will do or a few I can whip together.

Did anyone see Gerard Butler sing MOTN on "Saturday Night Live" tonight? Oh God, it was painful. He was funny on the show, but please no more singing. His voice in the movie was like velvet compared to tonight.

I have to see this. I've never been a fan of SNL in the first place so I wasn't about to make an effort to see it last night, but if I'd known he was going to sing that, I'd have stayed up...for the snark value.

Last night, I took a tour of the New York State Capitol with a group of people interested in paranormal research.

I knew most of the ghost stories associated with the place (though not all the specifics). It's stuff you hear about when you grow up so close to the place. But, while I believe the stories about hauntings in the Capitol, I also didn't expect to experience anything with the tour.

Well, I ended up hearing a voice in mid-air (I was standing in the balcony of the Assembly Chamber) say "will-yem" and that area is haunted by the painter who did the now-deteriorated murals, William M. Hunt. I smelled hot, wet ash moments before being told that I was standing on the exact spot where a night watchman died in the 1911 fire that devastated the State Library. And about two thirds of my photos have orbs...a lot of orb photos are taken there, with everything from high-end professional cameras to cell phones. Oddly, my photos have orbs, but none taken by James have them...even though we were passing the same camera back and forth.

What really cracks me up is the fan reaction to that video. Most of them don't realize he was joking around and singing badly...they've been very seriously gushing about how "beautiful," "rich," and "expressive" his voice was there.

operafantomet wrote:Oh no! I would expect it to be somewhat more soulful live. But I'm not interested in finding out.

LOL! Wise move. I just made the mistake of clicking the YouTube link. It seems my attempt to block out the 2004 film from my mind worked quite well, because I thought GB actually sang better than that in the film...and now that I've just played the relevant bit from the film soundtrack for the first time in 5 years, I now remember that he didn't.

The first volume ("The Gathering Storm") of the final book has just been published this week, delayed due to Jordan's death a couple of years ago.

Series must have been running for 15-20 years now. Started reading this when I was 17 or 18 and all I ever read was sci-fi/ fantasy. Now I'm 35 and don't like sci-fi/ fantasy any more... Still, will read this and the other two final books to see how it turns out.

Bit cross that they've split it over 3 volumes. Jordan promised a single final book even if Tor, the publisher, had to invent a new binding mechanism to contain it! The series has been spun-out quite a bit, I think, since book 4 or 5.

You know, I'm always happy when my partner James gets a visit from a friend he hasn't seen in fifteen years, but he needs to give me more than fifteen minutes warning...especially when I'm wallowing happily in a pile of books about 17th-century local history.

Yesterday I finally got the Glee soundtrack I pre-ordered. When pre-ordering it, I was aware that I would receive a free poster, but I didn't expect it to be autographed by the cast. I was quite excited, especially when I realized they autographs were not reproduced as I originally assumed.

Took advantage of the warm weather to explore the spot by my house where, in 1626, six Dutch settlers took the wrong side of a dispute between the Mohicans and Mohawks. Four were killed. One was...well...barbecued.

Okay, so I had a dream last night that I was that dude from Two and a Half Men and being a fighter pilot. Charlie Sheen was my Weapons Systems Officer, and we were in a Hornet simulator. I clearly had no idea how to work it, because Charlie Sheen was in my back seat getting all pissed off at me for screwing up. After crashing into a large mountain a few times and missing the entrance to the tunnel of doom (who flies through a tunnel??), I actually figured out how to steer it. Then I finally managed to land after nearly taking one of the wings off, but couldn't find where the parking brake was.

Many arguments and flipping through the "owner's manual" later, I had to drive the damned thing (apparently now we're in a real plane) to the gas station where I finally found the parking brake and pulled up next to a giant firetruck.

I'm in the middle of uploading the following video to the site, but I just have to share it here too because it's very touching.

On Wednesday night, a young woman named Jennifer passed away from cancer. She was a fan of Hugh going back to when he did Show Boat on Broadway. I had gotten to know her on-line over the past couple of years...just such a sweet, adorable girl. She'd been sick for some time and, in August, after a failed kidney transplant and being diagnosed with cancer, she traveled from New York to Virginia to see Hugh perform at Wolf Trap and I helped arrange a special private meeting backstage.

She was undergoing treatment in Philadelphia and was hoping to see Hugh in Oliver right after New Year's. Hugh was always very kind to her and a big inspiration to her. On opening night, right before the show, I found out that Jennifer had passed away that evening. My friend and site photographer Jan was at the show that night; she also got the news and was able to pass the news on to Hugh at the after-party.

As a little tribute to Jennifer, Hugh filmed this video after doing his usual blog for the site.

I'm not very thrilled that my flight is over 4 hours delayed. I'm absolutely not very thrilled that this makes me miss my Bjørnson appointment with the V&A, which was why I left Norway a day earlier to begin with. And I'm seriously pissed that RyanAir writes on their website that my flight is on time, giving them an amazing statistic on how "on time" their flights are. Bullshit.

That's all...

_________________JOSEFINE TO THE PHANTOM:You come off as... somewhat... rough...